This is a photo diary of my costuming "travels"; where I've learned and struggled to make historical costumes for myself. They're not always pretty, but always fun, most of the time. And I want to share with others what I learn along the way. **You can find me on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Time-Traveling-in-Costume-640703499399817/ or have my posts delivered to your email by signing up at the lower part of the right column.**

About Me

HI, my name is Val. I'm a member of Costumer's Guild West in Los Angeles, Dean Emeritus of 2018 Costume College; Past President of the San Diego Costume Guild, member of Orange County Costume Guild, and a representative of the San Diego History Center. I make my own historical costumes but don't sell any unless I get tired of one.The eras I've made so far are 1770 up to 1918. My favorite is the 1880s bustle.

Followers

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Last year
this 1875 dress caught my eye, and I immediately wanted to make it, as all us
Squirrels tend to do. At first it looked like it was all one piece, with the
Princess seam lines down the front. I loved the inset piece of contrasting
fabric down the center front. I could see a lot of ideas that would work with
it, with different fabrics and trims.

I started by
cropping a smaller view of the bodice area, and then noticed something. It
wasn’t all one piece, it was a long bodice over a skirt but well designed to
draw the eye down. I could see at the bottom of the row of buttons that it was
cut off there. That was an awfully long bodice.

I began to
gather my fabrics I could use for making it. I’d love to do the brown floral
silk here but haven’t found a good solid color for it yet. I had a lot of the
teal silk taffeta, so I found a matching Chinese brocade on etsy for it. That
was supposed to be made last year but I got backed up making something else.
And so on.

But then I came
across another seemingly all-one-piece dress, and this time it really was. In
looking close-up, I wasn’t seeing a separation of bodice and skirt. So, voila
we have a Princess-line dress. I noticed the same look in some wrappers but
there was a difference. A Princess-line dress is entirely long panels of fabric
that are seamed all the way down to the bottom of the hem. The wrappers only
had darts that fitted it closely to the waist so it looked similar.

So now I
wanted to find out more about these dresses because I found THIS fashion print
and now have the fabric and black lace to
make it.

And just
what is a Princess-line, or Princess dress? They are associated with Charles
Frederick Worth, who introduced them in the early 1870s in honor of Princess
Alexandra of Wales. And if it looks like the Natural Form dresses, you’re
right. Because those were all the rage up to 1880. They were very popular for the
young girls too. I had actually saved a photo of Princess Alexandra to my
folder showing one of these dresses, not even thinking of Worth or it being
attributed to her. But she had the body for it.

There was
even a “house dress Polonaise cut in a Princess shape” (1878). I guess everyone was
jumping on the bandwagon. But this one kind of goes back to my original pursuit
of the long Basque bodice over a skirt-look.

So getting
back to what I thought was my idea for a Princess dress (oh my, that sounds
lovely), it turned out most of the ones I liked LOOKED like Princess lines but
weren’t really. It was an optical illusion.

REAL
PRINCESS LINE:

NOT REAL:

I didn’t
like the Natural Form look on me the one time I made it. The long droopy apron
in the front was just not flattering on me. But I’m liking the busy-ness of all
that stuff in the middle, and you can add ruffles and bows and all kinds of
stuff.

But there’s
no patterns out there right now for this look. So I need to cobble something
together. I think I can use the back of
the Truly Victorian tea gown #432 for the Watteau train I want, but to get the
front will require a little more work.

I need to
first decide will I make it all one length, aka Princess line, or go with the
Basque bodice over the skirt version? I figured I could lengthen Truly
Victorian’s Bodice #225, but I would want to cut out a square neckline on it.
Then I could use their skirt #225 with just a train. And yes, trains in the 70s
was a thing.

TV 423

TV 225

These are
going into my “Make Me”, aka “The Squirrel’s Play Box”, planning file for when
I can manage to slip them in between other dresses I still want to make. It’s
not a priority at the moment but I have the fabric, and the idea, so all I need
is to add a pinch of time.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

A few years
ago, I bought a book that the photos of dresses on the cover really caught
my eye. It was during the late bustle period starting in 1888 and the bustles were disappearing
by then. They looked more tailored and not fluffy like the earlier dresses. What
was catching my eye was the open-robe type bodice and overskirt, kind of like
wearing an open coat over your dress. Although at that time, I didn’t make the
connection with the earlier open-robes of the 1790s. The book was “Directoire
Revival Fashions 1888-1889”. In the ensuing years, I’ve never heard that term
used. But recently a few fashion photos caught my eye again, and I decided to
take a closer look at this short-lived style.

I started
searching on the internet for Directoire revival, with no luck. My friend,
Cindy, told me she’d read something somewhere about the style being taken from the
opera, La Tosca by Sardou. She suggested I use the terms differently, so I then
started searching for revival 1880s Directoire fashion, and came up with this
Google Books document from The Dictionary of Costume Fashion by Valerie
Cummings, C.W. Cunnington, & P.E. Cunnington. The document broke the style down into Directoire
hats, coats, skirt, jacket, AND the swallow-tail coat. THAT’S what was catching
my eye, and now I had a name for it.

DESCRIPTIONS FROM THE DICTIONARY OF
COSTUME FASHION-

Directoire styles, late
1880s-1910: The revival of Directoire styles was
inspired by Sardou’s drama, La Tosca, as played by the French actress, Sarah
Bernhardt in 1887. The sleek, narrow lines and higher waistlines recalled the
fashions worn in France in the last years of the 18th century,
though the corsetry and silhouette was unmistakeably of the later time.

1888 Directoire coat: The bodice of the day dress in the form of a double- or single-breasted
coat cut across horizontally above the waist line in front, falling vertically
at the sides and from a gathering at the back of the waist, to the ankles.
Tight sleeves with cuffs. Worn with a wide folded sash round the waist. If double-breasted,
worn with a habit shirt; if single breasted, worn open with a shirt blouse.

1888 Directoire jacket: A similar bodice of a day dress but without the skirt portion of the
Directoire coat.

1895(?) Directoire
skirt: A day skirt made with 7-gores, the
four at the back being fluted. It was lined and stiffened with horsehair, and
measured 14 to 18 feet around the hem.

1888 Directoire
swallow-tail coat: The back of the directoire coat, cut
into tails with a deep central vent between; An afternoon dress style.

1888 Directoire hat: similar to the directoire bonnet description but larger-A square,
moderately high- crowned bonnet, the brim fitting over the ears, spreading out
above the forehead.

So, it was a
swallow-tail coat. It also reminded me of the polonaise of the 1870s.Then I went on a rabid hunt for more fashion prints with the
dates 1887-1890, because they would come out earlier to affect the following
years. I saw a couple that went into the 1890s before the sleeve puffs started
at the shoulders. Most of them were just mixed in with other styles of the same
time period, so it wasn’t widely shown.

This article mentions the Directoire style on
the bottom right photo.

This
first fashion plate from 1887 is from the Costume Institute. Even though it still
has some bustle in back, definitely has the open-coat look starting.

These were a
couple favorites I saved from 1888 Peterson’s Magazine, Journal des Demoiselles,
and La Mode Francaise.

This
is from one of the fashion magazines that you can see the back of the coat.

These 1889 fashion
prints are from La Petit Echo de la Mode, and Revue de la Mode magazines.

Being
curious of what was going under the dresses then, I found a walking skirt and a
couple of the bustled skirt being worn in Delineator Magazine. It’s not totally
flat yet, which I like, because I’m not ready to give up my bustle at this
point either. The second and third photo of the bustle looks like the skirt
itself is bustled and the coat would go over that.

I couldn’t
find a dated bustle for the two years but this looks close to what would be
needed under them.

So,
inquiring minds want to know: how do I make this? While reading the
descriptions from the Costume History, my mind would jump to patterns I had
that each part of the dress and hat would remind me. Since I’m able to easily
use Truly Victorian patterns, and have a good many of them already, that was a
piece of cake. Starting with the bodice, there’s a couple options to work with.
First is the TV #462 Tail bodice pattern, which I would extend the skirt
portion farther forward so I have the pleating in the center back, and smooth
sides. Another idea is to add the tail to TV#466, which has the lapels needed,
and a center section.

An alternative top would be to use VPLL (Vintage
Pattern Lending Library/ available on etsy) #672, and just add sleeves and the
tails.

This skirt may or may not need too much altering
using TV #261, unless you were picky and wanted all 7-gores rather than the 4
it has.

And finally, I immediately thought of this TV
#551 hat pattern from the description. I’ve seen it made up and it’s adorable.